I’m pleased with how my socks are looking and anticipate wrapping them up this weekend. I’m already anticipating returning to my mom’s languishing Christmas shawl, as well as a couple projects that’ve been sitting for several years. Plus, there will be a new pair of socks to cast on for. Exciting!

I went across the river to return a book to the Arlington library and came back with four that I randomly pulled from the stacks. (Ahhh… unfettered browsing…) The one I decided to start with was Leonard Goldberg’s The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes, which features the adult offspring of all the major players of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective series, as well as Dr. John Watson, now an elderly man. I’m delighted to report that I’m enjoying it thoroughly and that there are several more books in the series.

In the ears, I’m continuing to listen to Cassandra Petersen’s Cruelly Yours, Elvira, which is a lot of fun to listen to. She is a colorful storyteller and and an enthusiastic reader, which is all you can ask for in a memoir read by its author.

I don’t know what I’ll be reading next, but I’m looking forward to figuring out the paper answer sometime tomorrow.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what others are reading and crafting.

I just finished The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin and can’t get past the ugly crying and nose blowing to take a photo for today’s post.

If you like intergenerational friendships or were a teen fan of Lurlene McDaniel and want something that feels the same, but with less melodrama, I recommend checking it out.

Sock picture next week.

I’m nearly up to the heel turn for my socks, which is very exciting. I will be glad to have finished a project and to have new stripey socks to wear.

I’m almost halfway through Light from Uncommon Stars. I don’t know that enjoy is the right word for such a book, but I’m caught up in the story now and want to see if everyone will do right by one another.

I finished listening to A Marvellous Light (loved it) and have moved on to Cassandra Peterson’s memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira. I’m still in early days, but I’m enjoying her voice so far.

Head over to As Kat Knits to hear about what others are reading and crafting.

Look! It’s progress on knitting! This is the second of a stripey rainbow pair I began last year and put aside after the first one was complete. One of my coworkers recently learned to knit and another crochets and so we’ve started a knitting circle, with last week being our first meeting. I felt confident that I should have something to work on — and also, I’ve lost my knitting mojo a bit and stripey socks are potato chip knitting.

On the reading front, I’ve been dipping in an out of print books in search of one that holds my attention for more than a chapter. Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki may be that book. I’m up to page 30 in this sci fi novel about a woman who bartered her soul to the devil (I assume for violin prowess, but that part has yet to be revealed) and now is in the final year of needing to find seven other people to send him. There’s also a transgender runaway who may be a violin prodigy and a starship captain and mother of four who’s in hiding on earth with her family and passing their time making doughnuts. That’s a lot to squeeze into 30 pages.

In the ears, I’m adoring Freya Marke’s A Marvellous Light, about a man who gets a government job only to find out it’s as a liaison to the magical world. On top of that, the guy he’s replacing has gone missing, and he’s been cursed in an effort to get him to reveal a magical secret, and he’s maybe falling in love with the magician who’s his counterpart.

How about you? What are you reading or crafting? Head to As Kat Knits to see the roundup.

I’ll admit I haven’t been doing a ton of knitting or reading recently. Sock Madness has stalled for me at 17 rows of knitting in a week, which makes finishing a pair in a second wholly unlikely. Tonight’s contribution to the endeavor was finding a cable needle.

I’m having a little more success reading in print. I have a book that I’m making progress through, albeit it slowly. I like the characters and the plot, but I’m loathe to see unhappiness come their way, which is surely has to for a short while in order to advance the plot. That I know the ending will be happy is probably what keeps me plodding along.

What’s had the most resonance lately is the audiobook of Stephen Spotswood’s Fortune Favors the Dead, a gumshoe novel featuring two female PIs in 1945 New York City, one of whom has MS and the other who is a bi former-circus employee. I don’t know if I’d be speeding through it quite so much if I were reading it in print; the reader does a good job honoring the this-side-of-parody approach Spotswood takes, which makes it a fun listen.

My phone ran out of juice, so rather than wait for it to charge a bit and getting a photo, I’m just going to give you a narrative update on the reading and knitting around here.

Sock Madness, the annual sock knitting competition commenced today. I have two weeks to knit a particular pair of socks, which this year includes two colors and cables. I’m not feeling super optimistic about my chances of finishing them, but I plan to give it the old college try. I have two skeins of yarn I’m feeling … okay … about combining, and I’ve knit the first row.

On the reading front, I’m reading Evie Dunmore’s A Rogue of One’s Own in print and listening to Stephen Spotswood’s Fortune Favors the Dead. I’m enjoying both, but because of the mental energy I’m spending on other parts of my life right now, it’s all just going more slowly than I’d like.

Head over to As Kat Knits for this week’s Unraveled roundup.